Virginia Torrecilla: “Professional football takes away much more from me than it gives me”

He gets up early, has coffee with his mother, goes to the gym and trains in the afternoons.

Her life has changed drastically since she left professional soccer, as have her priorities: the most important thing for her is to be close to her family.

Virginia Torrecilla (Mallorca, 29 years old) overcame cancer after a brain tumor was detected in May 2020 and she suffered a car accident in June 2021 in which her mother was left in a wheelchair.

Her illness kept her from her “best professional moment.”

“Life has made me very sensitive after all, and it makes me value everything more,” she explains.

She gets emotional when she talks about what she suffered, but she smiles about what she has overcome.

She empathizes “with everything”, and has spent the last few weeks organizing her house and her room after leaving Villarreal, returning to Mallorca and signing for the Balearic Islands – a team in the Spanish Second Federation – to enjoy her last four months as a player of soccer.

She published Nobody regrets being brave (Ediciones B, 2023), a book that took her more than two years to write – in the midst of chemotherapy – and that neither she (nor her family) has ever been able to read.

Ask.

What motivated you to leave professional football?

Answer.

It has been hard, but football takes away much more from me than it gives me today.

I didn't have minutes and I didn't enjoy it like I always have.

I have seen myself inferior to what I have been and, above all, I do not have that confidence in playing again and that people trust me.

I have had many happy moments in football.

It has given me a lot, but not anymore.

I knew this day would come, but I didn't dare.

Q.

Were you afraid of leaving professional football?

A.

I don't know if it was fear of what will happen next or the desire to continue succeeding in football.

But I have felt afraid in many ways because I really wanted to go back to being the Virginia that I was.

Q.

What was that Virginia like?

A.

She was good at sports, she played almost everything, she was on high teams to compete.

But that Virginia never returned.

I didn't give myself the chance either, because my head stopped from suffering.

They have been three very painful years.

I left Atlético de Madrid to have minutes at Villarreal, and the same thing happens to me there, despite the fact that they tell me that I am very well.

There comes a time when I almost don't play.

Whichever team I leave, I don't have the opportunity to be reborn in football at 29 years old.

What do I do in another city where my family is not, where I am alone and that really doesn't give me anything?

In the end I have realized that the most important thing for me is to be at home with my family, take care of my parents and spend time with them.

The rest is secondary.

Q.

How important is your family in your life?

A.

It is the most important thing.

Especially after what I've experienced.

I have always been very familiar, but now more so.

I have had the opportunity to play in the Balearic Islands.

What could be better than staying here for my last four months and for my parents to be able to watch me play?

It's another way to leave it, at home, far from professional life.

I needed it.

Q.

How did your family experience the illness?

A.

Very bad.

When you go through it, it's different, because you can handle it.

But your environment suffers.

With my mother's accident I understood what it is like to experience it from the outside.

Q.

You say your mother's accident was even harder...

A.

Yes, without a doubt.

It has been much harder for my family.

It has changed our lives 200%, and I have felt guilty for a long time.

And I still feel.

What we have experienced has been very complicated.

That with everything that my illness entails, my mother came to live with me and everything happened in Madrid.

Sometimes there are hard moments that I forget.

The human mind is incredible and it takes away bad memories.

But if I think again, everything stops.

More information

Health is the key to life

Q.

With everything you've experienced, has football served as therapy for you?

A.

Many times.

I have always tried to put everything aside and get into football directly, but it is impossible.

It used to be my escape route, but not anymore, because it takes more from me than it gives me.

Now I live football in a different way.

Q.

You have changed priorities.

A.

Yes. Before I lived for and for football.

Not anymore.

Now, I go out of my way to care for my family.

Q.

How do you see the evolution of women's football in Spain?

R.

Little by little we are giving a lot to talk about.

We are booming, and we are going to continue growing.

I hope the good results of the clubs and the national team continue.

Q.

And the direction the selection is taking?

You were captain from 2019 until your illness.

A.

There have been hard moments, but we are moving everything forward and I am happy about it.

Unfortunately, women always have to fight more for our rights and we will continue to do so.

We are on the path, every day we are getting better.

Although with a lot of effort and fighting to make it clear that we only want to be footballers.

We are many, and getting stronger.

It can't be compared to my times, and it makes me sad.

Sometimes I think: I wish I had been 10 years younger!

But, I feel privileged and a pioneer for opening doors for all the people who come from behind so that they do not suffer what we do.

Q.

And future plans?

A.

I'm starting a Communication course in Madrid.

I want to get into football, to make the sport that has given me so much grow from the outside.

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